Notes on a soundwalk created for an exhibition in Peekskill, New York in 2006. Subsequently re-created in Belgium in 2018 and Lima, Peru in 2018.

Shibuya Displacement (sound walk)
Hudson Valley Center For Contemporary Art, Peekskill New York
September 17 2006

A recording of the recorded announcement heralding the arrival of the Tokyo Metro into the Shibuya Station. A spatial displacement. An aural smudge. We will parade thru streets of Peekskill New York broadcasting the sound of the train’s arrival into Shibuya station. Looped, overlapping sound will create a new temporal soundwork on the streets of Peekskill.

In August 2006 I spent some days in Tokyo. Although I’ve been to Japan many times, this trip had a particularly wonderful character. The recorded announcement of the Tokyo Metro’s arrival at the Shibuya station became a familiar background. I took it as a ‘representative’ of the particular acoustical nature of the Shibuya prefecture, where I spent much of my time. I transferred the sounds heard on the Shibuya Metro platform to downtown Peekskill—an audio displacement linking the two cities in a strange and unexpected way.

SHIBUYA DISPLACEMENT in Menen, Belgium, October 14, 2017, as part of my ‘Lost Ideas exhibition opening festivities.

SHIBUYA DISPLACEMENT in Lima, Peru, May 14, 2018, as part of my ‘Lost Ideas exhibition opening festivities.

by David Rojas:

by Josue Clausen: